Have you seen the new bigger collection of Spa inks over at Catherine Pooler Designs? If not, you’re in for a treat! Welcome to the Zen Garden Day Two Blog Hop! Did you hop along yesterday? If not, I’ll get you caught up at the end.

The new Zen Garden Release was kicked off yesterday. Eight new gorgeous inks were added to the Spa Collection – Rose Petals, Polished, Shea Butter, Seafoam, Spruce, Skylight, Stone Blue, and Sugared Lavender. I love how Catherine names her inks, I know it’s corny…but they make me smile. And let’s be honest it takes less facial muscles to smile than frown, so I try to do that as much as possible – wrinkles and all…lol!

Today we’re featuring the Love Grows stamp set. To say I love this set is an understatement.

I’ll admit, I find it super easy to stamp with just about anything created from the mind of Lisa Kirkbride. And when I first saw this set, I knew I would have loads of fun with so many of the little pieces. SO, my goal today is to showcase just how versatile the little stamps in this set are in addition to all those gorgeous flowers!

I don’t know about you, but for me if I can get versatility out of a stamp set, you know…use stamps for a variety of things – I’m sold. I’ve been stamping for 19 years now…wow! And I’ve purchased my fair share of sets. (Michael, if you’re reading…they were all on sale, I swear…lol) So I can tell right off the bat if I’m going to be able to use that set over and over again. That’s very important to me as a crafter. Love Grows fits that mold for me.

And interesting fact – when Catherine first saw these designs – it was all entangled as one design like patterned paper. But Catherine, being the brilliant designer and stamper that she is said – let’s break the pieces apart, it would make a great stamp set. And you know what – she was right!

Spa Inks Medley No 1: Love Seeing You Smile

Let’s start off with a more traditional Clean and Simple look to start. These flowers were just begging to be stamped, popped up and layered. This card not only showcases how stinkin’ cute they are, but how well the new 8 Spa inks work with the last 8 – together it’s a very powerful collection.

Here’s a TIP for you – cut out your dies first (I cut a ton when I first get my dies – pop a movie in and just cut, cut, cut…). Then grab what you need and stamp away. You’ll speed up your card making, cause you’ll have all the tools you need right at your finger tips.

The two flowers are inked up in Mandarin Spice & Sauna from the Paradise Found Collection, the small cute little conehead is in Sugared Lavender and Shea Butter from the NEW spa inks. For the leaves I wanted an earthy look, so I used Eucalyptus from the Paradise Found inks.

Don’t they all just play really well together? Skylight, Shea Butter and Sugared Lavender play so well with the first 8. That’s the brilliance of the Color Made Easy system by Catherine. No more needing to figure out what goes with what. Spa colors play well with each other…period.

Now for the fun little versatile pieces that I love so much. There’s an awesome stamp in this collection – it’s a circle with all sorts of lines in it – I LOVE that stamp. To get a great little background – stamp it next to each other and emboss white on white to create a scalloped border behind the top layer…did you even notice that? It’s a little subtle thing that totally makes the card. Little stamps like that are priceless to me. That’s where versatility in a stamp set sells me. And how about those little open circles? Notice I don’t need sequins here – I have those little circles!

I’ll admit, I’m in love with this card. Yesterday it was my mixed media card, today it’s all about the Clean and Simple…lol!

Spa Inks medley No 2: Smile

Did you know that Love Grows also works flawlessly with the new word die Smile? There are four sentiment stamps in this set. Seeing you, Sending you a, You make me and the word Smile. So naturally – a word die – Smile, fits perfectly too! And look how awesome this Smile is!! It’s an awesome font, and wide enough you don’t have to take your time placing your Multi Matte Medium (glue) behind it – love that!

Stamp a background in Shea Butter. It’s subtle and soft, yet you can still read it. Stamp a small circle (filler stamp from the awesome Eat, Sleep Create Stamp Set) in Sauna for a little contrast in-between and you’ve got an awesome background.

To make it all pop, use the complimentary color to yellow – purple (across the color wheel). I wanted something dark, so instead of Shea Butter – which would have been just as cool, I chose to use the deeper spa ink color Royal Treatment. Smoosh down some versamark and emboss in clear and you’ve really got a cool word embellishment that pops.

For that little something extra, work in my favorite stamp – the circle with the lines through it in Skylight. Isn’t it just AWESOME? Add that little flower in Mandarin Spice too. It needed something else, and I love to work in odd numbers, so I added that great little circle stamp in skylight too.

Of course, sometimes you just need a little bling too – so sneak in some sparkling clear sequins by Pretty Pink Posh – you know those are my go to…lol!

I was having SO much fun with the color combo of Skylight, Shea Butter/Sauna, Mandarin Spice and Sugared Lavender/Royal Treatment. It’s an awesome combo – you have to try it…the spa inks go SO well together.

So what do you think…fun, right? Have you checked the shop out yet? What are you waiting for?

When you’re all done shopping – don’t forget to check out all the incredible designs by the Creative Team today. Don’t forget to comment too – Catherine is giving away two set of Zen Garden Spa Inks. And if you already purchased them…you’ll get a $45 gift certificate, so you can’t lose! Now it’s your time to keep getting inspired – hop along!!

Fun, right? Tomorrow the hops continue….SO much great inspiration this week. Don’t forget to comment below! Till next time…

Keep those fingers inky!

Supplies

To make finding the supplies I used in these projects a bit easier for you, here are a few clickable links. Compensated Affiliate Links are used when possible. Click here for disclosure. Happy Shopping!

The Zen Garden release is finally here! I’m absolutely head over heels in love with this release, and I bet you will be too. The eight ink colors Catherine Pooler created to go along with the Paradise Found collection complete each other. This week you’ll see exactly what I mean!

Mixed Media Zen Feather Tutorial

I love to play with the watercolor smoosh technique, also known as Wrinkle Free. For my first project today, I wanted to create a Mixed Media piece. I was immediately drawn to the quirky circles in the Zen Feather set. I just HAD to create these flowers….lol. Normally I create separate watercolor swatches of each color with this technique, this time I put them all on one big 5×7 piece. The beauty of that is I was able to use it for two projects!

Just look at these colors – isn’t the Zen Garden Collection gorgeous! To create this project, I used the new Stained Glass Coverplate as a stencil. I cut one out of heavy weight cardstock and sealed it with Gel Medium. That way I could use it over and over. To get this look you’ll want to smoosh your Versamark pad through the stencil and onto your project. Emboss in Clear and fill in the gaps left by your stencil with Black Jack – that’s the Joseph’s Coat technique.

Next I removed my embossing powder – WHAT? Yup, you read that right. I put my technique piece into a phone book and ironed the embossing powder right off it. It melted into the pages of my phone book leaving me with not only a super flat piece (thanks to all that ironing)…but a single sheet leaving your friends to ask…how did she do that?!!

Next, Add a little stenciling with a Black Licorice Gelato – don’t worry about being perfect – just add some fun texture. Edge your project with the same Gelato and rub your finger over it to smudge it a bit. Stamp a few fine spats from the Eat Sleep Create stamp set in versamark and emboss in Metallic Gold. Randomly edge your piece with the versamark pad and do the same.

Your piece is beginning to take shape. Add some black on black embossed flowers – die cut them with the matching Zen Feather dies, cut the awesome hand lettered Create die and emboss all the pieces. Add some Eat Sleep ones too – just do those on Charcoal paper instead of black.

Add some flower stems in some black and grey Pitt Pens, smudge with your finger and adhere everything to your piece. Smoosh versamark through the Split Chevron stencil to the top and bottom of your card base and emboss in black. Add your card front and you’re all set!

It’s a beauty, right?

Masculine Feathered Thanks

Here’s one for complete contrast!

I love the look of Stone Blue and Icing on the Cake. It’s great for masculine cards and I thought, why not just keep it simple and straightforward. This is a card I can use in many ways.

No rocket science here – Just fun little triangle filler stamps – love those! And what do you think of that word die? Gorgeous, right? Did you know there was a matching YOU too?!!

Zen Garden Doodled Bouquet

And I thought it would be fun for you to see just how well the Zen Feather stamp set works with the most amazing background stamp ever….seriously – Doodle Garden!! Here’s a bed of Seafoam sponged over a white embossed Doodle Garden. It’s like a field of flowers!

Doesn’t the Zen Garden ink collection pair really well with neutrals? That’s because it’s filled with soft, muted tones. I love how these colors work with Black Jack. Cut out some of the Zen Feather Dies, stamp and create a fun little bouquet! Add some Spruce sponged stems, tie with a little sentiment block – I used Just from Zen Feather and paired it up with the Create Die. My create is cut out of Fun Foam and has some Wanderlust Embossing Powder melted on it (carefully – that stuff burns quick!!).

Add some sequins and you’re all set. Super easy, fun and a little different.

So there you have it – all 8 inks, many projects and now for the really good stuff. If you’re ready to grab those inks – just click any photo in the supply list below. It’ll take you directly to the shop.

Don’t forget to hop! Leave comments all along the way – Catherine is giving away two Zen Garden collections! If you won and ordered, she’ll issue you a gift card to use in the shop! Here’s the list of players today. I’ll be back tomorrow with some more projects for that hop!

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Classroom Links

Disclaimer

All creative artwork is by Ingrid Blackburn. Company materials used are listed in that particular article. I am not endorsed by any company directly.

The projects and online classes are provided as inspiration and may not be used in submission for publication, contests, or any online classes. If you wish to use my projects in a live class, please credit The Creative Grove for the inspiration.